Equipment

The game is played on a spiral shaped board consisting of 63 spaces. There are four differently coloured pieces - often in the shape of a goose and two six-sided dice.

Preparation and Objective

Pieces are placed on the starting space at the outside of the spiral. Highest roll of the dice starts.

The Game of Goose is a simple race game - first person to reach space 63 wins.

Play

Players take turns to roll the dice and moved their piece forward by the sum of the two dice.

• If your first throw is six and three, move to space 26.


• If your first throw is five and four, move to space 53.


• If a piece lands on an enemy piece, the enemy piece is returned to the space that the piece started from in that turn (i.e. the two pieces swap places).


• If a piece lands on a space with a picture of a goose, it moves forward by same amount again. If this causes the piece to land on another goose, it moves forward again in the same way.

• 6 - The Bridge - Go to space 12


• 19- The Hotel - Stay for (miss) one turn


• 31- The Well - Wait until someone comes to pull you out - they then take your place


• 42- The Maze -Go back to space 39 (or space 30 in most French games)


• 52- The Prison -Wait until someone comes to release you - they then take your place


• 58- Death -Return your piece to the beginning - start the game again

Winning the Game

To win the game, a piece must land exactly on space 63.

If a player throws too many, the piece counts the extra points backwards from the winning space. If you then land on a goose space, you must continue moving backwards by the amount of your throw until you land on a space with no goose space. If you land on the Death space, you must start again.

Variation - Gambling / Grown-up Version

The game would more usually have been a gambling game in centuries past. At the beginning, the stake would be decided and each player would put one stake in the Pool. Then, each time one of the following events occur, the Pool increases:

• When one piece lands on another, swapping places with it, both players pay a stake to the Pool


• When a piece lands on any Hazard space, the player pays a stake to the Pool

The winner takes the Pool at the end of the game.

Many German boards feature an additional Hazard space on space 61 - usually illustrated with a glass of drink. If a piece lands on this space, the player has to finish his drink!